Doctor Who (1963) 10-02: The Three Doctors, Episode Two

Episode:

331

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Serial:

65

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Writers:

Bob Baker and Dave Martin

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Director:

Lennie Mayne

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Air Date:

06-Jan-1973

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the second episode of The Three Doctors - Doctor Who's epic 10th anniversary saga (that actually aired around its 9th anniversary). It's a four part serial so I'll have made it halfway through after this. Though you can click this link: EPISODE ONE if you'd rather go back and read about the first quarter of the story.

You know, I'm sure that title looks slightly different than it did on part one. They must have had to add it to each episode separately instead of just reusing the footage. That's the kind of quality trivia you can expect to find in my reviews.

Here's another Doctor Who fact for you: the episode was written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, the folks who get a credit whenever K-9 appears in an episode.

Bob is maybe not the most famous Baker to work on Doctor Who, but he did get there before Tom and Colin at least. Plus he co-wrote the Wallace and Gromit stories!

SPOILER WARNING: There will be spoilers here for the events leading up to, and occurring within, this particular part of this particular serial. I won't spoil anything that happens afterwards though and I definitely won't give away how the story ends as I can't remember.

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Previously on Doctor Who:

UNIT HQ is under siege by blob monsters, sent to Earth along with a rubbish-looking blob effect to hunt down the Doctor and teleport him away to a universe of antimatter. The Time Lords have been having problems of their own, as a black hole is draining vital cosmic energy, threatening the whole fabric of space-time! They had a solution though: send the Second Doctor to help the Third Doctor out! This didn't work, they just started arguing, so the Time Lords decided to pour more fuel on the fire by sending the First Doctor too! Well, he made a video call at least, explaining that one of them would have to go get blob'd across to the other universe. The Third Doctor lost the coin toss and went off to meet the blob, followed by Jo, and they both disappeared.

And now, the continuation:

I'm starting to become aware of how many scenes there are of people looking at TV screens in this serial. The Time Lords are watching the people in the TARDIS, the people in the TARDIS are watching the blob effect in the lab; everyone's watching everyone else.

The console room was packed a moment ago, but it's just the Second Doctor and Sergeant Benton left now after Three and Jo ran out and got zapped. The blob effect seems to have calmed down a lot after claiming its Time Lord target, so it might be safe for them to come out now too. Benton wants to go get a grenade and throw it at it, apparently forgetting what happened when they fired an RPG at the other blobs outside (nothing), but they're going to leave it alone for the moment and go meet up with the Brig.

Benton's got a proper role in this story and I've read two reasons for why that happened. First, they couldn't use Second Doctor companion Jamie, because the actor was busy. Second, they couldn't use UNIT soldier Mike Yates, because the actor was busy. Works for me, Benton is great.

The Brig seems to be struggling though, as he won't even let Benton explain that Three and Jo got teleported by a blob and the Second Doctor's back to help out. As far as he's concerned he just turned his face back and he's not interested in hearing anything more on the subject.

They mention the Second Doctor's adventures with the Yeti and the Cybermen here, but I saw those serials five years ago so I can barely remember them.

6-16 - The Invasion, Episode Six

The thing is, both serials aired in 1968 so it would've been five years since anyone at the time had seen them as well.

The BBC did show repeats occasionally, but it wasn't like US TV where Star Trek was constantly on in syndication. As far as I can tell (with a couple of exceptions) the Second Doctor stories aired once and then were gone. Really gone in most cases, as they got wiped, though a lot have since been recovered.

The Time Lords have the biggest TV screen and they've switched to the black hole channel instead of keeping an eye on what the Doctors are up to. No seriously, that's a black hole. I'm going to give them a pass here as the term itself was only a few years old at the time and it's not like anything else managed to get them looking right during the next 40 years.

Anyway, just because they've turned Doctor Who off, doesn't mean we're spared a recap of the story so far. I've already recapped the first episode though, so I'll skip straight to the circular paper.

You can tell how advanced a culture is by the nature of their paper. Battlestar Galactica's crew uses sheets with the corners cut off, Babylon 5 uses clear plastic (sometimes), and Star Trek has moved on to using tablets. Time Lords use different coloured circular sheets, probably because they match the awesome decor. This is a surprisingly stylish command centre, especially for Doctor Who's budget.

The Time Lords do something here I didn't expect: they call Patrick Troughton's character the "Second Doctor" and say that Jo is a "companion". That's what they're called out of universe, but it's rare for them to be referred to like that in a story.

The Doctor and Jo wake up to find themselves lying in a quarry, with their faces in the grit. It's one of the tradeoffs of getting to be an actor on Doctor Who suppose; they knew what they were getting into.

The good news is that the two of them didn't explode on contact with the landscape, which is presumably made of antimatter. The bad news is that they're trapped on another world on the other side of a black hole, with no TARDIS. The Doctor's got no one to blame but himself, seeing as he was the one who gave himself the idea to come here.

They're saving money on the cast this episode I guess, as UNIT HQ is still abandoned aside from the Doctor, the Brig and Benton, and they haven't moved.

That blob effect hasn't budged either and the Doctor theorises that it's made of antimatter, which explains... basically nothing. The Brig decides he has to go contact Geneva to update them on the situation, which I suppose is a comforting ritual for him that helps him cope with the utter insanity his life has become the last few years.

The Doctor decides to keep the creature confused with useless information and wonders if there's a TV handy. See, it's comments like this that got TV to wipe all of his episodes.

Meanwhile, the Doctor has found the rest of the laboratory scattered across the antimatter planet. That's the Brig's computer over there, apparently. There's no keyboard so I suppose he just barks orders at it.

They've also found the door, though it's closed and locked for some reason. The Doctor jokingly explains that it's "No admittance".

I like that the episode's actually having some fun with its premise now, instead of having long scenes of exposition about cosmic rays etc. It's just a shame there's no one around for the Doctor to flip with Venusian Aikido. He can't go driving in Bessie anymore either.

They found Bessie!

It seems like someone's been driving it around the quarry without them, judging by the white on the tyres, but maybe I'll just pretend I didn't notice that.

I'm going to pretend I didn't notice this creepy hand-shaped turn signal as well. This is the first time I've spotted it and I think I was happier not knowing it was there.

The music gets a bit weird here as they drive off, a bit circusy almost. I haven't said much about the serial's soundtrack yet as music's subjective and you don't need my opinions on it, but I definitely feel like it's something I'm being subjected to.

The director suddenly decides to tilt the camera and give us a Dutch camera angle, I guess to make the planet seem more alien? Honestly, it looks more pleasant out right now than the scenes set on Earth in part one. Look at those beautiful blue skies.

Anyway, the characters have stopped and gotten out to follow a trail of mysterious footprints. Meanwhile, unobserved, Arthur Ollis is observing them.

Back at UNIT HQ, the Doctor has come up with a device that should keep the blob effect pacified. He can't stay and monitor the test, however, as the Brig needs him to come explain the situation to the Security Council on video chat. They'll be expecting the Third Doctor, but the Brig's thought of that: he's going to say that Two is the Doctor's assistant. A rare case of Brig getting revenge.

Benton's left in charge of keeping an eye on the blob effect and he follows the Doctor's instructions to the letter. I mean the Doctor never explicitly said that he shouldn't throw his chewing gum wrapper at it. The thing starts freaking out and using the device only seems to make it worse, so he calls the others back and they all duck inside the TARDIS with the forcefield back on.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart was introduced to the series way back in season 5's The Web of Fear but this is actually the first time he's ever seen the inside of the TARDIS console room. It's also probably the first time the Doctor's offered him a jelly baby.

The Brig assumes that this must be an optical effect and guesses that the Doctor has been spending UNIT funds on it... which may actually be true now that I think about it. I mean the place has just had a makeover.

Meanwhile, on the antimatter world, the Doctor and Jo find Dr Tyler. But unbeknownst to the three of them, they are being watched. I mean they're being watched by someone other than Ollis.

There's a man in a murky room somewhere spying on them with his own TV. Everyone in this serial is watching Doctor Who, even the villain.

He's happy to see he has captured a Time Lord and sends his blobs off to open fire at the heroes with their crab hands.

Holy crap! I love that Doctor Who loves its explosions. That honestly woke me up a bit. The area around them just erupted in a circle of explosions. The heroes understand the message and raise their hands.

Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor has worked out that his device had the opposite effect on the blob than intended because the thing is made of antimatter. I'm not sure that makes any sense, as the device was designed to confuse it, but whatever.

The Doctor, Jo and Tyler are taken to the villain's palace, which means we finally get to see some new sets!

Jo claims the place looks like Aladdin's cave, but I have to disagree with that. To me, it looks more like the inside of a rusty old ship that's been hauled up from the ocean floor after 50 years. Or a corridor set built on the cheap for a low-budget BBC sci-fi series that someone's covered in jam.

Back in the TARDIS, the Brig is struggling to call out on his radio through the forcefield, so the Doctor gets out his screwdriver to give it an upgrade. His regular screwdriver I mean; I guess this is before the Second Doctor went sonic. I like that he was enhancing communications equipment this early though. I thought this is something he only started doing once companions started carrying phones.

Tyler thinks they should make a break for it while they're still close enough to the entrance to find their way out, but the Doctor thinks that's a bad idea for two reasons. First: he wants to speak to their host and find out what's going on. Second: all that's out there is a barren alien world light years from the Earth.

The Doctor thinks he's talked Tyler out of it and everyone smiles, but then the scientist suddenly goes and legs it. He runs around the alien base trying to escape for a minute, fails, and then gets dragged back to the others. So that was a good use of precious episode time.

They'll all probably be fine though, the Doctor reasons, as superior intelligence doesn't go with senseless cruelty. Uh, Doctor, you remember the Daleks, right? The Master? You're always going up against foes whose intelligence is only matched by their cruelty!

Back at the TARDIS, it's time for some more words of wisdom from the Doctor's kid self. Though they're basically the same words as last time: just let the blob effect teleport you.

That's easy for him to say, he doesn't have to worry about the consequences for years! Though he will eventually have to go through this crap two more times.

Back in Aladdin's cave, the Doctor tries to explain how they could still be alive on a planet made of antimatter, using the aid of magic tricks. Honestly, I think he just wanted to show off. I mean he must have had those flowers ready to go for weeks waiting for the right opportunity to whip them out dramatically. Jo doesn't seem all that impressed though, as she just drops the flowers on the floor once she's done with them.

Basically, his explanation was that they've been processed in a way that lets them touch antimatter without mutual annihilation, same as the antimatter creature in UNIT HQ. I wonder if this is going to be a superpower they get to keep, because 'immunity to antimatter' is a handy ability for any action scientist.

Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor listens to what he told himself on the TV and drops the forcefield to let the blob effect get them. This makes all the blob monsters outside UNIT HQ suddenly disappear! Not the outcome anyone expected but it's a happy result.

But then the whole UNIT HQ building disappears as well! Though it leaves its shadow behind.

In a still image you can see that this effect was probably achieved by sticking two pictures together, but it's not a bad attempt for an episode filmed 14 years before Photoshop.

There is one thing that's a bit weird however: there are no foundations left behind, or pipes, or any sign that a building was ever there. In fact, there's grass where the building was and it looks pretty healthy. Do they move UNIT HQ to a new location every couple of days to keep their enemies confused or something?

It's definitely on the move now, going where no UNIT HQ has gone before, as the whole damn building is being taken through the black hole. Well, except for the bits that were already missing, like the water cooler and the missing piece of wall. At least it's all going to the same place.

Anyway, there's an image to end an episode on.

TO BE CONTINUED IN THE THREE DOCTORS, EPISODE THREE

CONCLUSION

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The Three Doctors, Episode Two is a big step up from episode one. I mean it's not great, but it's more adventurous and interesting, and things happen in it.

The first episode teased how well Pertwee and Troughton work together, and we don't get any of that here, at all, but I'm starting to come around to the idea that sometimes it's fine to give a returning Doctor a chance to be the star again and call the shots. Especially when it gets me a new 'Second Doctor and UNIT' story! It's not a particularly awesome UNIT story, seeing as it's about three people moving between two rooms and hiding from a blob, but they picked the right characters and gave them some good lines. I'm a little disappointed in the Brig though, as a leader doesn't really get the privilege of putting his fingers in his ears and going 'na na not listening' whenever people try to explain to him what's going on, and I know he's better than that anyway. At least, I think he is; it's been a while since I watched the Third Doctor era.

Meanwhile, the Third Doctor was out with his companion, roaming around a quarry and browsing furniture, which is about as Doctor Who a story as you can get. Especially when the rubbish monsters appeared and everything started exploding. I feel like Jo was better served by this episode as she got more to do than make the tea and continually insist that she's sticking with the Doctor, and exposition time with Dr Tyler went better as well.

So yeah, I enjoyed this more than the last one. Splitting up the Doctors cut off the potential for the kind of Modern Who-style character exploration you get when a man's stuck in a room with himself, but giving them separate problems did show the difference in how they operate. I just wish that there was a difference in the way the episode ended. The First Doctor appears on the viewscreen again and tells the Doctor to let the blob teleport him away again, which he then does. Again.

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COMING SOON

Doctor Who will return with The Three Doctors, Episode Three, hopefully sooner rather than later.

You can leave a comment right now if you feel like it. Share you own opinions about this second chapter.